PARADISE — A group of archaeologists and volunteers are working in Paradise to recover cremains of loved ones lost in the debris of homes destroyed in the Camp Fire.

The Institute for Canine Forensics and archaeologists from Alta Archaeological Consulting have been working together to locate cremains. The ICF is a nonprofit organization located in Woodside. According to one of the lead archaeologists working on the project, Alex DeGeorgey, the ICF does disaster relief, forensic investigations and works well with archaeologists.

“We’re kind of devising the methods and figuring it out as we go,” DeGeorgey said. “But we’ve realized and proven that it can be done and now our goal really is to help people and publicize that this is available.”

Lynne Engelbert has been a canine handler for 25 years. Engelbert and her border collie Piper are part of the Historical Human Remains Detection team, California Office of Emergency Services Human Remains Detection and FEMA Human Remains Detection, according to the ICF website. The IFC began working with Alta Archaeological Consulting during the Tubbs Fire in 2017.

“There was a gentleman who lost the cremains of his mom and dad in the fire because he had not gotten them scattered per their wishes. He was in the same office building as Alex and he asked Alex about it,” Engelbert said. “Alex talked to another one of the archaeologists and they said call the Institute for Canine Forensics and the rest is kind of history. We worked probably close to 50 homes in Santa Rosa.”

The IFC will be working in Paradise in three different rotations. One three-day span happened this weekend. Another is planned at the end of December and another at the end of January.

The handler first does a walk around of the site to see what’s safe for his or her dog, asks the homeowner where they believe the cremains are, and then the dog goes in to help confirm they are looking in the right place.

On Saturday Engelbert and her team of volunteers searched for cremains of five individuals in Tony and Lisa Englant’s family on the 6000 block of Dean and Pentz roads. The Englants didn’t have time to grab the urns as the fire closed in on them.

“As soon as we got out the back door the fire was falling from the sky. Ashes on fire was hitting us in the head,” said Tony Englant.

The five individuals Engelbert’s team was looking for included Lisa Englant’s mother and father, Merrilee and Birl Bellar, and son Brandon who died from pneumonia in 2010. The other two cremains were of Tony Englant’s daughters Taffanie and Sherri who died in a house fire in Arkansas in 2004.

“We’re hoping to recover something,” Tony Englant said.

Cremains were found for all of the family members except Lisa’s mother, Merrilee.

Volunteers traveled from various towns to be part of the process. Anmarie Medin drove up from Sacramento and found the experience fulfilling.

“My takeaway from it is that these people have lost everything and if we can help their family member not go to a landfill, that’s just something that we can do for them, that helps them with the healing process,” Medin said.